“Holman seduces you into a world of priests, rogues, saints, a world bright with horizon, wonder, piety. Her prose, tart, racy, and somber, will sing in your soul a long while.” —Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes

“Holman tells a fascinating story. From the opening scene in Crete to the harrowing finale in the Sinai desert, she knows how to create suspense.” --The Washington Post Book World

“A Stolen Tongue is that rare thing: a page-turner which is at the same time intellectually stimulating, very moving and highly original in execution. The best historical thriller I have read since Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose.” —Alain de Botton, author of How Proust Can Change Your Life “First-novelist Holman pulls her readers along with odd riddles and careful suspense. . . This is a strong debut, an often enthralling yarn that draws the reader right in among the pilgrims on their harrowing trek." --Publisher's Weekly

“Holman's touch is so tender, her seduction so sly, she'll have you believing you disdain her fussy and virtuous Brother Felix--before it hits you that you've fallen in love with the man. . .This is an uncompromisingly original novel, a rapture." —George Dawes Green, author of The Caveman's Valentine